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(Note: I know I haven't blogged in a long time - probably about 2 years ago, but I'm starting up again. Hopefully, a post a week going forward. Well I'll just try and make 1-2 posts per month; during softball and soccer season it's difficult)

We just came back from our semi annual Disney trip and things were really smooth. I think a lot of it has to do with the magic bands and fastpass+ reservations. There are still issues with the fastpass+ reservations but if you learn to work that system it can make your trip really smooth and you will see other attractions besides the big ones. What makes the trip so smooth reminds me of back in the early days with Phone service - sure AT&T was your only provider but you picked up the phone and made a call - it always worked, it always sounded great. If you book your Disney trip at one of their hotels, your trip will be really smooth. Here are some of my latest tips.

Pre Trip

You can stay at a lot of hotels that are cheaper than Disney but I don't think it is ever worth it. Besides the great customer service and design of the hotels, the concierge at the Disney hotels are really your keys to making your magic bands hum. You have a problem (like I did) with your band, the concierge will fix it. Also, when you stay at a Disney hotel you can prebook your ride reservations 60 days in advance which is really helpful.

Plus you get access to the Magic Express or as I call it the Magical Mystery Tour. At a minimum you log your flight information with Disney, tag your bags, and then let Disney take your bags and deliver to your room. You can let Disney drive you via a bus run by Mears but then you will delay your arrival by a couple of hours. Why do I call it the Magical Mystery Tour? Because sometimes you leave early, sometimes you wait for more passengers, sometimes there are only a few stops and sometimes there are a lot. If you want to get to the park with plenty of time - pay for a $70 taxi - that's what we do.

I like adding Disney's Memory Maker to our passes. For $160 you and your entire party can download all the pictures Disney Photopass takes of you. This includes ALL rides where the chip in your band captures the ride photographs and makes it available for your download. So, I let Disney's photographers take as many pictures as possible.

Finally (and yes I do this), you can prebook your dining reservations 180 days in advance. I've found that your happiness with Disney is directly correlated with your Disney food selections. For our November trip, I have a calendar alerts to start my dining reservations exactly 180 days out - 6 months in advance I have my daily dining reservations all booked.

Magic Bands

Everything is linked to your bands. Sure Disney is tracking you which might make you feel squeamish but it really makes your trip smooth. Once you land your bands start to work with Magical Express. You charge on them. You open your hotel doors with your bands. It has your reservations for rides and dining. I'm sure if you had an emergency they would scan your band. My problem with my band was that there were so many on my account that my newest band wouldn't open my hotel room. So I left it with concierge who cleaned it up while we went to the park.

Night 1 - MK

I made reservations at the Magic Kingdom and we did Peter Pan, Splash Mountain, and Space Mountain plus a few other rides. The biggest disappointment was our dinner selection. Usually my go to in the MK is Columbia Harbor House but the rest of the team wanted to try something else so we went to Peco Bills. Trust me avoid Peco Bills with a passion. It's awful.

Day 1 - Animal Kingdom

The biggest tip I give people is get to the park early. Getting to the park early almost always works so off to the animal kingdom we went and over to Exhibition Everest where we got the ride two times via the stand by line. We had park reservations at the Safari, Kali River Rapids and back to Everest. Our biggest surprise was our meal - we at at the Yak and Yeti restaurant. It's kind of like a greatest hits of Asian food. I highly recommend it. Dinner that night we went to the Yachtsman Steak House which was expensive but awesome; five of us at there for around $300 and that includes my 20% discount. The steaks are butchered and aged on the premises. After dinner we went back to the Magic Kingdom for rides and fireworks.

Day 2 Epcot

Here's where you run into a Fastpass + Reservation problem. Disney only allows you to make a reservation in a day for either Soarin' or Test Track and not both. Also, except for those two you really don't need a reservation for any other rides. We picked Test Track with the idea of getting to the park early and riding Soaring. Unfortunately, that day we kind of slept in missing the park opening so we missed Soarin' on this trip. We love building our own simulated Roller Coaster inside Innoventions - give it a try - it's fun. After walking around Epcot we went to the large contemporary pool and then dinner at Akershus in Norway.

Akershus was a little expensive for what you received. Yes the food and atmosphere are great as is getting your picture taken with Princesses. However, it's a fixed buffet dinner and unless you are going to really get your money's worth, the price of dinner was only a little cheaper than the Yachtsman. For example. my daughter didn't want to try one of their entrees so she went with mac and cheese (which was made there and very good) and she chowed on cheeses from the buffet stations - add some sodas and that's like a $45 meal. The kids liked it so they want to go back but I'm not sure it is worth it.

Day 3 - Hollywood Studios

Here comes another problem park for the Fastpass. You can not reserve the Rock and Roll Roller Coaster and Toy Story Mania. So, you need to get the park prior to park opening to get on the one you don't have a reservation for. I recommend reserving Toy Story Mania and getting to the park at opening to ride the roller coaster at least 2 times (in November Kaela and I got on it like 5 times). The rest of our reservations were made with Tower of Terror and the Great Movie ride. In general you don't need fast passes for anything beyond Tower, Rock and Roll, and Toy Story. While there we watched Beauty and the Beast (yes it was good) and took cartoon drawing lessons. We went back for a swim and then on to another favorite restaurant - The Flying Fish. It's as expensive as Yachtsman and even though it says "fish" in it's name - get the steak; it's awesome.

Day 4 - Back to Magic Kingdom

As usual we like ending at the Magic Kingdom. So first, we did the airline checkout which was smooth as usual - only because we leave enough time for any potential glitches. There was a glitch with our reservation that got fixed in plenty of time and then we walked over to the Magic Kingdom to get there at park opening which I always enjoy; the train comes in with the characters and then there is a little song-dance routine. After walking on Space Mountain (remember my trick about getting to the park at opening) we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and then to our brunch at Crystal Palace. Sure it's a little expensive because it is a character meal (fixed price) but the brunch is awesome and where else can you get great pics like this?

After that it was back to Space Mountain and then on to Splash Mountain. We skipped 7 Dwarfs because I didn't want to waste a fast pass and the lines are ridiculously long. We spent more time in the Magic Kingdom then we were supposed to because instead of taking the Magic Mystery Tour home we took a cab. To grab a cab from the MK you either go to Tickets and Transportation or walk to the Contemporary which is what we did. It cost us around $60 for the cab but it was well worth it because we gained over an hour extra in the park; Magical Express picks you up 3 - 3.5 hours before your flight.

Disney as usual was a blast. We got plenty of pool time, fun in the parks, and good meals. I've already planned our November trip.

Well that actually took me a lot longer to write. I actually have another post in my head which hopefully won't take me a month to write like this one :-)

I'm getting ready to put the final touches on our May Disney trip and I started thinking about the Magic+ Bands. I kind of lean towards not liking them but as usual with Disney, I'm going to have to learn to deal with them. We were able to fully use them in our November trip and unfortunately, we didn't optimally use them because they were new, but now I have a pretty good handle on them (I think). I'm not going to go into the details on them so if you aren't sure what I'm writing about, then read this post from Disney on their Magic Bands.

Here Are the Good Points about Magic Bands

1) Disney Really Cut Back on The Amount of Cards You Have to Carry - No more room cards. No more disney charge cards. No more paper fast passes (more on that in a second). You just wave your band to get into your room. You just place your band on the stands to get into your room or use your fast pass. You roll over the the charge mouse, enter your pin and now you bought something. It's cool.

2) Photo Pass Works Better - Yes, no more carrying around photo pass cards. That's another card that's no longer needed. Now you don't have to worry about losing your photos. That's nice but now what makes it even better is that everyone in your party can access pictures. So, say you and your wife separate. Now you can see her pictures that she takes without having to worry about getting her photopass card.

3) You Can Schedule Your Fast Passes in Advance - That's right. No more rushing to Toy Story Mania at the park opening. You can schedule your fast passes right from home and as long as there is availability, bang you are good to go. You can pick times. You can assign different rides to different people. Keep in mind, that there are some real Uglies with this but I'll get to that in a few. I also found out there is a grace period in the window so if you arrive (please confirm this when you are at a park) no more than 15 mins late you can get in.

4) The Mobile App Works Great - You can reschedule your fast passes. You can see where you are having dinner. You can see the wait times. The app works great. I did have some connection issues when I wasn't in a park, but once in the park, no problems.

5) I think you are likely to try other less popular rides because the more popular rides have no advanced fast passes remaining.

Here Are The Bad Points (I think these will be fixed)

1) You still need to carry cards as a DVC member to prove your membership.

2) You still need to carry your tables in wonderland discount card.

3) You still should carry some ID and maybe a credit card for the odd shop that doesn't take a Disney room charge (there always seems to be one of those in the Animal Kingdom).

4) As an annual card member, I had to go to guest services my very first day in order to activate our bands.

5) I think you will miss some favorites because you had to make a choice on which fast passes you can get. I missed out on test track in the fall.

6) You now have a fast pass window. So, you have to arrive during your scehduled time with a 15 minute (confirm this when you are in the park) grace period at the end of your window.

Here Are The Ugly Points (And they are really Ugly)

1) You are limited to 3 Fast Passes Per day. I really hate this. I think once you are in a park and used your 3 advanced fast passes, you should be able to make more if there is availability. Maybe limit to 3 advance passes, but you can get more once you are in a park; perhaps I'd like it better that way.

2) Fast passes are limited to one park per day. This one is really ugly. So let's say you want to go to the MK and Epcot - you can only make fast pass reservations in one of those parks and the other one you are out of luck, even if you only wanted one fast pass in MK.

3) The combination of 1&2 kills spontaneity and park hopping to an extent. Imagine waking up one morning and you decided, oh I don't want to go to MK I want to go back to Epcot. MK is where you have your fast passes. You are at the mercy of whether the Epcot premier rides have any advanced fast passes left. Regarding park hopping, only one of those parks can have the fast passes so park hopping won't be as much fun.

4) Oh and good luck trying to get a popular ride's fast pass the day you are in the park or if you wanted to switch something around. I had little luck. One day in the MK we went to switch around our fast passes to the morning but I couldn't get any of the popular ones so we ended up with the meet and greet with the talking Mickey Mouse; we did have a great time and would (maybe with time permitting) do that again but still, we couldn't switch the passes around.

So what am I going to do about the ugly parts of the magic band? Well, I think I'm going to try to schedule the vast majority of my advance fast passes in the afternoon. Why? I get to the parks early so a lot of my rides should be available as a walk on. That won't be the case for Toy Story, Soarin and maybe Test Track. I've never seen a time when those rides are easy to walk on but the roller coasters you can get on.

Park hopping well, unless you are park hopping to the park with the fast passes or just want to go to eat at a particular park or want to do other park activities, then park hopping doesnt work the same anymore. I'd guess people stop adding on the park hopper unless the cost is so minimum that it doesn't matter.

Also, forget about waking up one morning and changing your park. Sure you can change your mind as long as you don't need fast passes, but if you want to go to Studios and ride Toy Story, forget about it....

This post is about 2 weeks overdue but that doesn't make it less timely. As some of my closer friends and family know we are big Disney fans. In fact, if there was one company that I'd even consider working for again, it would be Disney, even if that meant a move to Orlando. So besides all of the great Disney moments that you've normally come to expect, let me tell you about two incidents from our last trip there in early November and Disney's awesome response.

As usual we stayed at our favorite Disney hotel, The Wilderness Lodge. We like the atmosphere and the many options to the Magic Kingdom, plus Artist Point is one of Disney's finest restaurants as well as one of our two favorites (we ate there twice on this vacation). Anyway, when we got to our room, it appeared that either the fridge defrosted or malfunctioned because the carpet in front of it was soaked. We didn't think much of it, so we placed towels in front and asked housekeeping for more. The next day, however, we all woke up with headaches and stuffed noses but went to the parks anyway.

Before hand, we spoke to the head of housekeeping early in the morning and even though she probably thought it was nothing she agreed to give us a VIP cleaning before we returned back. Plus, if we were not satisfied they offered to move us into another room. The next day we woke up without any issues and they again offered to move us, but we stayed the rest of the vacation, problem free (we thought it was mold). The head housekeeper told me she cleaned and disinfected every space in the room.

However, our biggest problem was with Disney's Magic Express Tour or as we call it The Magical Mystery Tour. We called it this because it sometimes takes a lot of time to take the bus back and forth to the airport. If you didn't know what it is, Disney (I believe) subcontracts out to Mears who grabs your bags and delivers them to your room while you take a bus to your hotel. In the past we've let Disney take our bags while we paid for a taxi but our last few times the wait hasn't been too bad so we took the bus. Unfortunately this time it was a disaster.

We checked in as normal and waited about 15 minutes until we boarded a bus. Then we waited and waited. The bus never reached more than about 25% full and there was nobody waiting outside. So after about 20 minutes my wife asks the "Disney Cast Member" when we are leaving and she said she didn't know. I put Cast Member in quotes because this couldn't be a real Disney Cast Member but a subcontracted employee of Mears. So we got off the bus and paid for a taxi, never knowing how long that bus sat there. For all we know it could still be sitting there.

We didn't let this bug us too much and even took the Magical Mystery Tour back to the airport. Then Disney sent us a survey 2 weeks or so later and towards the end of it, I wrote the exact story above with a closing note that said "I know you subcontract out to Mears and I thought your should know."

A few days later I received a call from an executive customer care representative who received my note and survey results. I then told her, "look there is no way that I believe Disney has no idea how many people are coming in, which planes they are on, and when they are supposed to arrive; I bet Disney knows right down to the minute they are supposed to get on the bus. I believe Mears is taking advantage of Disney and not running half empty buses which they should have known they were going to have in the first place."

She was extremely friendly and put a $75 credit on our American Express Card which was totally unexpected. I offered to talk to any other Executive but she assured me they were already informed and thanked me again for bringing this to their attention.

And these two examples prove why Disney's customer service is second to none. I worked at AT&T as a Division Manager and understand how large companies work. Sometimes things outside of a group director's control go awry and it takes a great feedback system with people empowered along the way to make decisions, big and small, to correct problems. Disney certainly has that system in place.

Now as anyone knows, Wall Street and the media always look at the openings to see how successful a movie release is going to be. Disney of course know this too and that's why they are using one of their tools in their arsenal which most movie studios don't have - tens of thousands of people going into their parks every day and the vast majority of them with young kids.

So what is Disney doing? Simple - giving away a ticket for each kid with a corresponding adult. We picked ours up in Disney Studios and using a simple activation code and website, we picked up our free children's movie ticket guaranteeing that we will see the movie the first three weeks it is open - December 11 - December 31.

I think this is a simple, yet brilliant integrated marketing tactic and costs Disney very little in the way of promotions. Sure there are cards to print and marketing materials to put out in the park, but compare that with what you'd expect other marketers to do - direct mail, radio, emails, display ads, etc. We were already in the park, likely to be their target market, and all we had to do was agree to receive the cards at a counter while we were checking out with a purchase. That's Disney at its best using integrating marketing.

So the Frenchmans are back from our annual pilgrimage to the house that Walt Disney built in Florida and I usually come back with some marketing factoids that I notice that Disney Corp does better than anyone else. This year was no exception, but pretty much the marketing tips centered around customer service, marketing, and defending your competitive turf. Seriously, year after year I don't really looks for these things, but as is the case with Disney they pretty much smack you in the face with their marketing prowess.

Personalized Service That Makes You Feel Special - After the second full day in the park which was spent at The Animal Kingdom we went to one of our
favorite restaurants Boma. Boma is the only dinner buffet we will ever go to because the food doesn't sit at all in chafing dishes, the food is unique, and is brought out fresh as soon as it is finished cooking. We noticed the head chef TJ making the rounds in the dining area and he stopped by our table when we told him how special we thought Boma was. Next thing we know TJ sends out a special plate of ribs and a version of mushroom tempura for us and then later on he sent us a dessert he made for us. We didn't realize it but evidently Disney considers him their best chef and he refuses to go anywhere else but Boma. He said we have a new friend at Boma and we should ask for him next time we come in - I can only imagine how many people TJ has told that to in a year.

Pirate and Princess Party In The Rain Shows Their Training - So the last two times we went to Disney we paid an extra fee (yes) to go to a special party at the Magic Kingdom at night. They close the park early and then in order to enter the party you need this special pass. Sure they hand out cheap beads at special locations marked via an X, but the park is virtually empty and you can walk on rides as often as you want with no wait (unlike Magic Hours). This year it started to rain about 2 and half hours into the party chasing us and a bunch of other families. However, the Cast Members went right along with their jobs and business not even flinching when the rain was slamming them. Personally, I thought it was a masterful example of their training and the focus of their employees; I think 99% of companies would crave for that level of dedication.

They Listen to Customer Feedback - One of the many complaints over the years with Disney Dining was that they didn't have your typical reservation system and you were often seated within 15-30 minutes of check-in which most people (your truly) complained about; it always reminded me about that Seinfeld skit (taking a reservation is easy, holding the reservation is what counts). This year I noticed that they took no walk-ins and we were always seated within 2 minutes of checking in. Clearly someone figured out that the old reservation system was upsetting the people who planned in advance while walk-ins were treated on the same level unlike any other restaurant scenario (tough luck). Not saying it is right, but that's the way reservations work outside Disney. BTW - they also improved the Magical Express service, but more on that below.

Protecting Your Customer From The Competition - On the way back to the airport (we took a cab to spend more time in the park), I noticed that the cab driver was not taking I-4 back so I asked him why not. He explained that as part of their Disney training, they are told not to take I-4 back to the airport because the other highway is just as short and you don't take the customers by Sea World or past Universal billboards. I thought this was brilliant on Disney's part but what I thought was even more amazing was that this cab driver had Disney training. According to the cabbie, Disney's Magical Express, the cabs that are found on property, as well as any limos you may rent are all owned and operated by Mears Transportation. You remember Mears, don't you? They were the bus transportation company that you thought Disney put out of business with Magical Express. Nope. They are the exclusive ground transportation for Disney. Talk about a) getting a sweet deal for both companies b) making sure that the Disney customer is cared for to and from the airport c) making it seem that Disney does not have complete control over you, when they ummm really do. Brilliant!

There weren't many things to complain about. Heck the concierge had access to the latest radar readings to help us make an informed decision about spending extra money to go to a water park. Since Disney seems to have their Mouse Ears up - here are three things I'd like for them to fix for me besides lowering the cost....

Equip people with some sort of text message, social network space, early warning system so that
we can make informed decisions regarding which park to travel to. One day Disney Studios was invaded by a cheerleader competition swelling the park population so I could be heard mumbling "I used to like cheerleaders..."

Instruct parents that every kid that has ever been to a Disney park has been cute at least once in their life. I was so annoyed with a father who let his younger kids sit in a wheelchair row with the look back to the crowd of "look how cute my kids are I can't control them". EVERY KID IN DISNEY HAS BEEN CUTE AND YOUR LITTLE CRITTERS ARE NO DIFFERENT (actually the complaint is to please leave the wheelchair accessible rows open until instructed by a cast member. No person who can sit there should have to ask someone who should not be there to move)

More butter and less margarine. One day for breakfast at the counter service location in the hotel (a deluxe one) I decided to have pancakes. All I could find were some chemical enhanced butter substitutes which really upset me. Come on Disney. How much money do I need to pay per day to have a friggin pat of butter.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

(BTW - if I seem off tonight it is because I had to put my 15 year old cat to sleep today. RIP Puglsey)

Well, we just got back from our annual trip from Walt Disney World; thanks for hanging in there with me while I was offline. Unlike past trips, I had only one major marketing observation. Sure, the finger-printing of the adults still weirds me out, but what I noticed this time is how everyone is so perfectly scripted it is almost refreshing.

Executives from many different companies like to talk about how their team is on board with objectives from the top right down to the janitor, but precious few companies actually walk the talk. Disney is definitely one of them and is probably one of the crown jewels of this management strategy. I'm not saying they are perfect, in fact, when they step out of the script is when you can appreciate when the cast members are on point.

Sure all cast members greet boys as princes and girls as princesses, big deal. What is amazing is how they spring to life when little ones just start talking about their day or something they remembered. No matter how busy they are, how long a line is, or whatever the situation is, they spring to life and actually are interested in talking with kids. All ride attendants direct people, take pictures, and are generally helpful. Heck, one of the nicest touches that Disney does is making sure there are greeters at the park when you arrive and when you leave. Every single night near a park closing they had someone there to wave good bye. Imagine that at Yankee Stadium!!

There were a couple of non-Disney moments for us this time around, but the bulk of them came with luggage not being delivered until very late in the night, but eventually we got it resolved. The only scripting problem that I noticed had to do with our priority seating just as a restaurant opened. Twice we made reservations at the start of dinner and both times we were told to wait 15 minutes, even though there was NOBODY in the restaurant, the help staff was literally standing around b-s-ing, and we were clearly on time. The first time, an older, well dress man called their bluff and the next time my wife did it (as usual). The scripting works around priority seating except at the opening.

All and all, you have to be impressed with the top-down approach and Disney magic wielded by everyone there. It is almost like they put happy pills in their coffee and make them listen to motivational tapes before they go to bed. My old AT&T friends and I used to joke about pushing objectives down to get everyone on board - boiling them down to a few key tactics that everyone can understand and deliver. Clearly the Disney Cast Members have it down to a Disney science.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

P.S. - What possesses the morons that get on the end of a 110 minute standby line for Space Mountain? I wanted to talk with the folks at the {rear} end of the line, but Mary grabbed my arm and pulled me back. I actually over heard a brain dead New Yawker say to his wife, "oh the line is only 60 minutes, let's get on it!" I turned to him and said - "pal, it is like 2 hours." He replied "really did you just get off the line?" Yeah, right....I can't buy any pills, legally, that would make me want to do that.

I certainly had other posts on my mind today, but I read one that downplayed Disney's new version of their website as not having a enough Web 2.0 bling in it and I felt the need to respond. And the response is pretty simple. Perhaps Disney knows a lot more about their users than we give them credit for. We are getting ready for our annual trip and I have to tell you, our family is vastly more technologically savvy than the majority of park visitors. I'm not bragging, so don't take it that way, but I think we are making an assumption that Disney's audience pays attention to blogs, RSS feeds, widgets, moving content around, embracing the community, and all the other Web 2.0 functions.

Disney.com badly needed a face lift. The old version was outdated, had too much of a childish feel to it, and not enough video upfront. I still did most of my bookings via the phone because the website wasn't warm or user friendly enough for me. The new site is a vast improvement and so what if they left out RSS feeds?

Sometimes knowing your audience and keeping it simple for the families that are true Disney customers are better than jazzing up the site for analysts around the country. Clearly they know about the bling, so why can't we give them the benefit of the doubt that they actually researched and tested it with customers and went with the better choice?

So, we are back from our second vacation down in Walt Disney World thanks for hanging in there with me last week. As you can see, I preloaded posts before I left. One of the biggest changes since February (besides the unbearable heat at the end of August in Florida) was that almost every park is now matching your fingerprint with your park pass. Disney told us it was to protect you in case you lose your park pass. However, my mind started spinning about all of the data Disney collects on us. And, I guess I'm not the only one because Donna Bogatin over at ZDNet had a similar observation in a post called Walt Disney World "fingerprinting" Visitors: Magic Kingdom, or Mickey Mouse?

You can read Donna's article for a quick look at the technology and the company behind it; however, I'm taking a different approach. Let's look at the data Disney collected from me that can now be theoretically matched with my fingerprint - name, address, email, age, children's name and age, credit card, phone numbers, emails, which parks I visit, potentially which rides (via fastpass), food, purchases and more. Wow, that is a ton of data, but what could Disney do with it? According to their Park Privacy Policy almost anything they want.

Q3.

How may we use and share your personal information that we collect?

A3.

We may use and share your personal information collected under this Privacy Policy in a variety of ways, including, without limitation, for example:

One of the examples they give is this:

We may disclose personal information when we believe in good faith that such disclosures (a) are required by law, including, without limitation, for example, to comply with a court order or subpoena, or (b) will help to: enforce contest, sweepstakes, promotions and/or game rules; protect your safety or security, including, without limitation, the safety and security of property that belongs to you; and/or protect the safety

Now I don't think Disney is up to anything sinister, but what jumps out at me with their data/privacy policy combination is that they theoretically could build a national fingerprinting registry and hand it over to the US Government.

Over at Wikipedia they reference that in 2005 the Magic Kingdom had over 16.2 million visitors. Not all of those people are US citizens or are being fingerprinted (kids), but based on a 250 million US population I wonder how long it would take Disney to build a sizable database of US fingerprints. Clearly this system is not Mickey Mouse.

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